Hospitals told to improve productivity by think tank

Hospitals in England must improve productivity to avoid patient care suffering in the coming years as it looks to make saving of £20bn by 2015, experts have warned.

 

A new report by think tank the Nuffield Trust says getting the right mix of skills, limiting the use of agency staff and overtime and tackling sickness rates are all key to productivity gains.

 

It also needs to reduce the amount of time patients stay in hospital, increase day case surgery and improving procurement: indeed the authors believes around £500m a year – equating to 10% of the consumables bill - could be saved if all Trusts bought items at the lowest available price.

 

Meanwhile back office functions - including HR, finance and staffing - are all areas ripe for reform, the report says.

 

Nuffield said achieving the £20bn of savings across the NHS presented a major challenge because productivity had been getting worse over the past decade. Its report focuses on hospitals because they are the most expensive part of the NHS system, accounting for about £45bn a year - nearly half the entire NHS budget.

 

Judith Smith, head of policy at the Nuffield Trust, said: "It is very difficult to justify cuts if inefficiencies in areas such as rates of day case surgery, length of stay and the purchasing of hospital supplies remain untackled.”

 

Health Minister Simon Burns added: "We agree the NHS should and can be more efficient and improve the quality of its services at the same time.